Hampton, Va. - A pool of blood remains in a Hampton front yard, left behind after a police officer shot and killed a one-year-old pit bull there Monday morning.
Investigators say that dog, along with another pit bull attacked 5 people on Bell Street. The attacks started with a postal worker, then a police officer and animal control officer who were both called to help.
"Both the officer and animal control officer were bitten, non-life threatening,” says Cpl. Mary Shackelford, a Hampton Police spokesman. “At that point the officer discharged his firearm and killed one of the dogs."
The dogs also lunged for two more, who family says were trying to hold the pit bulls down. The owner's son, Shawn Fitzgerald, says they were both bitten on the arm.
"She was holding the dogs back,” Fitzgerald says. “The dog was biting back like that, it wasn't like the dog was attacking."
Fitzgerald says it was one year old Sassy that was shot in the yard - property he says the dogs were only trying to protect.
Next door neighbor Claddie Jones says she never knew the dogs to be vicious.
"They're good dogs,” Jones says. “They don't act like that. I’m just upset a dog got shot and lost her life. There’s other ways to put a dog down. As far as a taser or a tranquilizer gun, but he just plain out shot the dog."
The dogs’ owner, 58-year-old Eyvette Fitzgerald, was issued several summonses by police including one felony for possession of a vicious canine. She tells NewsChannel 3 that she was not home when the attacks happened.
Animal control has the other pit bull, whose family says is four-year-old General. He is currently in quarantine.
